Linux Mint 17 to Be Called “Qiana,” Release Date Announced

The first details about the upcoming Linux Mint 17 have surfaced

Clement Lefebvre, the creator of the Linux Mint distribution, has just announced that the next version of the Mint operating system will be called “Qiana” and it should be available by the end of May 2014.

Linux Mint is one of the most popular Linux distributions out there and it's only superseded by Ubuntu. Actually, Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu and makes use of its repositories, but that may not happen for very long anymore.

Once a year, the creator of Linux Mint announces the name of the next iteration, and this year it’s “Qiana.” The distributions always had interesting names, and one of the main reasons for this is that the community has no say in it. In other projects, like Fedora for example, the community decides the name, which hasn't worked out so well in the past.

“Linux Mint 17 will be named ‘Qiana’ and should be available at the end of May 2014. Qiana is pronounced kee-AHN-ah. It was the name of a fashion silk-like material, introduced in the 1970s and popular in the disco-era, when it was made into loud, shiny shirts with pointy collars. The feminine name is of American origin, and its meaning is ‘silky.’ In some languages Qiana also means ‘singers,’ ‘light,’ or ‘deity’,” said Clement Lefebvre in a very short post.

According to its creator, Linux Mint 17 “Qiana” will be available in four flavors, just like the other edition before it: Cinnamon, MATE, KDE, and Xfce. As usual, the Cinnamon and MATE versions will be the first to arrive, followed shortly by KDE and Xfce.

The Linux Mint developers have had some problems with Canonical and the Ubuntu repositories, but those problems seem to have been resolved. In any case, Linux Mint also makes an appearance based on Debian instead of Ubuntu, but that release hasn't seen much support from either the community or the developers.

Clement Lefebvre also said that Linux Mint 17 “Qiana” would be launched by the end of May, which means that it will be out exactly six months since the previous iteration. The Ubuntu release schedule is also bound to a six-month routine and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) will have been out for one and a half months when the Mint release happens.

It's also very likely that soon after the release of the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on April 17, the RC versions for Linux Mint 17 “Qiana” will also start showing up.